


Like Cats and Dogs

by RunWithWolves



Series: 25 Days of Sweetheart [15]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Werewolf Laura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 04:24:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12623124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunWithWolves/pseuds/RunWithWolves
Summary: Laura's heard her entire life that vampires and werewolves aren't supposed to get along so when Carmilla walks into her dorm room, Laura figures that they're doomed from the start. Carmilla is loud and messy and she doesn't even try to get Laura to like her. It would only take Laura a quick phone call to reveal Carmilla and have the vampire hunters at her door.But it's hard to hate a girl who smells like fear under all the bravado.





	Like Cats and Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> Had a request for a werewolf au so here you go!
> 
> for those of you who know i've been working on Silas D&D, I included a werewolf race and liked them so much that I stole a bit of their backstory to sneak into here :D

They were destined to hate each other from the beginning. When Carmilla slammed through the door, Laura’s nose was immediately hit with an eerie foreign smell that had her reeling to reach out and grab her wolf’s coat. Something that was both so human and so not. Her lips curled back into a snarl on reflex.

“You’re a vampire!” Laura said.

Carmilla dropped her rucksack on the floor and stared at her. Eyes appraising, glaring, but she didn’t move as Laura reached for the fur neatly folded at her side. Her eyes tightened, face unreadable, “And you’re a werewolf, aren’t you cutie? I thought it smelled like wet dog in here.”

“Better than the death smell you carry with you. At least I’m alive.” Laura’s fingers touched the silky fur and she relaxed slightly; if Vordenberg’s news station was to be believed then a vampire would destroy her fur without a second thought. The only thing that could save her was if she put the cloak on before Carmilla struck. If she didn’t, Carmilla would destroy her fur.

Laura skin curled at the very thought.

Without even asking, Carmilla started going through the fridge, “We’re both pretty cursed though. So that’s something.”

“Right.” Laura deadpanned, “Because you’re an undead abomination raised from literal hell by gods who got too powerful and wanted an army to take over the world but didn’t account for your sentience. I’m just a human with an ancestor who happened to cross some bored fairies who decided to play a cruel trick.” She pulled the fur into her lap, “It’s totally the same.”

The first werewolves had been normal humans with the misfortune to come across Fairies of both the High Seelie and High UnSeelie courts at once. Eager for a bit of fun, the fairies had cursed the humans and turned them into wolves. Fleeing from the fairy laughter, the wolves had ended up in the woods. Afraid and confused. It had only been a third kind of magic, from the gentle woods fairies, that had confined the curse to blanket of fur and altered the curse enough to let the humans change between their forms at will. 

Unless there was a full moon, then the curse took over entirely.

“That’s what I keep telling people.” Carmilla emerged from the fridge with two of Laura’s cookies in her mouth. She pulled a bottle of blood from her bag, popped the lid, and dunked a cookie in it like it was milk.

“Those are mine!”

“You want them back?” Carmilla’s smirk was a challenge as she held out the bloody food.

The tang of iron hit Laura’s nose and she recoiled, “That’s disgusting.”

Carmilla shrugged, “Suit yourself.” She down the cookie in a single bite and when she finished, she gave Laura a fangy grin around the blood on her lip. Laura clung to the fur a little bit tighter, her fur was a light brown and silky soft. An extension of herself that no-one else ever touched.

She wasn’t about to let this intruder get their hands on it.

Carmilla rolled her eyes and flopped onto the bed, “You can put the fur down, fuzzball. I’m not going to slaughter you in your sleep or whatever lame PR that windbag is spouting these days. That’d be too much work.”

She was pretty sure she actually agreed. Werewolves and vampires may have had bad history but he was definitely over the top.

Laura didn’t move, “Maybe you’re just trying to lure me into a false sense of security.”

“Sure. Because my primary goal is to give myself away and get brutally murdered by vampire hunters.” Carmilla dropped an arm over her eyes, “The extermination of my entire species is definitely worth destroying one tightly wound wolf barely grown into her fur.”

Laura gaped at her.

“Although,” Carmilla added, “I would get a whole room to myself. That’s a luxury in a dorm room.” She peeked at Laura from under her arms, “Maybe I should kill you.”

Laura stared at her, fur tickling her chin, “You’re really not doing anything here to make me like you.”

“You’re going to tell old Vordie about me anyway, aren’t you?” Carmilla bit the second cookie, “I’d been hoping that my roommate would be a good old normal human and I could hide out here for a while. Pretend to be your average squishy 20 year old. You caught me on sniff one.” She dunked the cookie again, “Might as well enjoy the freedom before I either messily fight my way out or they stick a stake in my chest.”

Laura threw a hand in the air, “You don’t know I’m going to report you. You could at least put the effort in.”

“Ah,” Carmilla waved a finger, “But then I’d be lying about who I am and you’d feel so betrayed when you found out and then you’d report me anyway. If we’re going to do this, might as well do it now before they find something more painful than a stake. So bring it on cub,” Carmilla tried to make the words a challenge but there was something on her face that had Laura frowning, “decide my fate. You going to tell the hunters where I am?”

She breathed deeply, trying to work out what it was in Carmilla’s face that was bothering her. Her nose twitched at the smell. All cold and metal. But there were parts that still smelled human. Smelled familiar. Old grace notes still stumbling between the altered melody.

Inside them, Laura found the faintest hint of fear. Something small. Vulnerable. 

She hesitated, “You’re asking me to lie for you.”

“I’m not asking you anything,” Carmilla said, “I’m saying that I’m a vampire. I’m apathetic and old and annoying and i don’t pick up after myself. What are you going to do about it?”

Laura’s jaw twitched. Her eyes narrowed, “I don’t like you and I’d be a fool to trust you.”

But.

She threw the fur around her shoulders, instantly warm. Shifting was as easy as taking a deep breath, her bones compressing in a way that felt like stretching after sitting for two long. Each pop making her feel just a little bit better as she slipped inside herself. 

When she landed on all fours, Carmilla was blinking at her. Hands fisted tight in the blanket despite the raise of her chin and the challenge written all over her face. 

Laura ignored it in favour of switching off the light with her nose. She trotted over to her bed, leapt up onto it, walked in a circle three times because it just felt right, and settled into a tight circle before pulling her spare blanket over her back with her mouth. Nose tucked to tail. This wasn’t her preferred form for sleeping but she wasn’t about to let her fur out of sight with Carmilla in the room. So close Laura could sense her every twitch from the other bed. She closed her eyes but that didn’t stop her from literally feeling Carmilla stare at her.

She opened a single eye and flicked an ear at Carmilla in annoyance. 

Carmilla just kept staring. 

She snapped the words on reflex, brain flicking into the magic that connected packs, “Stop staring!”

Carmilla jumped. “What the-” She shook her head, “Did you just talk inside my head?”

Laura sat up, both eyes flying open as Carmilla frowned at her. In the dark, Laura knew her own eyes glowed golden but Carmilla’s seemed more silver. Almost animal. 

Then that husky tone came sliding into her head and Laura yelped in surprise, “You should ask a girl before you go intruding on her thoughts, cutie.”

“I didn’t mean to do that,” Laura said. “I didn’t even know I could. Just go to sleep.”

Carmilla spoke aloud this time, “I’m a vampire. We don’t exactly spend the night sleeping.”

Laura let out a low growl, “As far as I’m concerned, you’re a plain old human. And plain old humans sleep at night. So you’re going to lie there and I’m going to pretend that I don’t already regret this.”

Carmilla’s lazy salute was cocky but something like relief flashed in her face as she laid back on the bed. 

“And pick up your backpack in the morning,” Laura added, “It doesn’t belong on the floor.”

#

The backpack was still on the floor two weeks later and several friends had joined it to the point where Laura could no longer see the floor for all the clothing. There were bras hanging from the lamp, the shower was full of hair, and blood bags littered everything in between.

Not to mention, she’s stolen Laura’s yellow pillow.

“Carmilla,” Laura growled even though she was in her human form, “You have got to clean up around here.”

Carmilla put a hand to her forehead, “I can’t. I think I’m coming down with something. Better lay here and sleep it off.” Then she gave Laura a wink and went back to reading her book. 

Laura slammed her fist down, shaking the bedframe as she grit her teeth, “What is your literal actual problem that you can’t act like a decent person for even five seconds?”

“I’m not a person,” Carmilla said, “I’m a monster, remember? This is just on brand.”

“Are you trying to make me hate you?” Laura said, “Because it just might work. What’s even your angle here? What do you want! I’ve kept your little secret for who even knows what reason.” That small scent of fear ran through her head again like a memory she couldn’t escape.

Suddenly Carmilla was across the room and in her face. Her voice a soft calm that did nothing to hide the anger underneath, “And what’s your angle, Laura?” She drawled Laura’s name like a curse, “You haven’t turned me in yet. You haven’t held it over my head to force me to clean even though I can see it’s driving you to want to chase your furry little tail. You’ve just acted like you’ve completely forgotten that I’m some an undead fiend you're supposed to hate.” She eyes roamed Laura’s face, jaw tight, “So what’s your angle, cutie. What do you want?”

She was in Laura’s face. Nose to nose and both girls breathing hard. Each refusing to back down as Laura cursed the half inch that forced her to look up to see into Carmilla’s eyes. With Carmilla so close, it only took a twitch of her nose for Laura to find the smell that haunted her. And then it hit her, “You’re afraid of me.”

Carmilla stepped back like she’d been hit.

“You’re afraid of me.” Laura repeated. She shook her head and took another breath and it was suddenly full of a hundred different smells like a layer had been pulled away, “I thought it was because you thought I’d tell them about you but… you wanted me to? You’re more afraid now because I haven’t.” Carmilla’s eyes were wide, arms closed in on herself as she leaned away.

The odd vampire smell was still there, curling the hairs on the back of her neck, but underneath it was feelings that Laura couldn’t even begin to understand. Nuances leaking into each other like 300 years had jumped forward all at once. Fear and pain and fear and confusion and fear and just a little hint of hope.

“Carmilla,” Laura shook her head, trying to clear it, “Are you trying to get me to hate you?”

Carmilla drew herself up, “No-one does anything for free. Everyone has an agenda. I’m just trying to figure out yours. It’d be easier if you’d play by the script”

Laura sighed, the intensity fading from her throat as she sat on her bed. The implications of Carmilla’s words running through her head. Her voice was soft. Tired. “Has no-one ever just been kind to you?”

Carmilla’s mouth snapped shut. Eyes dropped.

“You smelled like fear when I met you know,” Laura gestured to her, “Under all of this. No-one should have to be afraid like that. No-one should assume everyone has an agenda.”

“They usually do, fuzzball.” Carmilla sat in the bed across from her.

Laura shrugged. It was hard to be afraid of a vampire when she smelled like a confused toddler confronted with snow for the first time, “First time for everything I guess.”

She reached out and tossed Carmilla her backpack, “And pick up your stuff! This isn’t a pig pen!”

#

As soon as she started paying attention, Laura was struck by how the smallest kindness seemed to bring Carmilla to a complete standstill. How she searched for some ulterior motive. 

It started accidentally, Laura passing Carmilla the last cookie from her box on her way to toss the whole thing in the recycling. Carmilla had spent a solid five minutes just staring at the baked good sitting on her knee. Eventually, Laura had just rolled her eyes and said, “If you don’t want it. I’ll eat it.”

Carmilla had looked at her, frowned, and shoved the entire thing in her mouth, “Finders keepers fuzzball.”

Her cheeks bulged out like a chipmunk and Laura had to smile.

The next incident came with the blood bags a week later. She’d barely walked into the room when Carmilla was in her face, fangs out, “Why is there blood in the fridge?”

Laura forced herself to be calm but her fingers still found the edges of her fur where it was tucked away in her bag. The words rushed out in a breath.“Oh yeah. So that weird plant you have started talking about a shipment or whatever? I guess it’s how you contact your secret blood guys?” Carmilla growled something she couldn’t make out. Laura continued, “And it was saying that “they” were right on it’s tail and if you wanted the shipment you had to get it now before they left and then they rattled off an address and I didn’t know where to find you so I figured I’d pick it up for you?”

She pulled the fur a little farther out.

“Don’t want the big bad vampire sucking your blood?” Carmilla asked.

“Well yeah,” Laura admitted, “That’s a thing I really don’t want but don’t also vampires get really sick without blood? Like I’ve heard that it’s not a pleasant experience and since just getting the flu stinks. That must be the worst.”

Carmilla stared at her for a moment then walked clean out of the room and didn’t return for two days.

Laura found her passed out in bed, pale and shaking in a nightmare. Softly, Laura covered Carmilla with a blanket, shook her to wake her, and shoved a bottle of blood in her hand. 

While the room was still as messy as it had ever been, Laura figured that being kind to ancient killing machine probably couldn’t hurt. 

Except, it was hard to think of Carmilla as an ancient killing machine when she knew that Carmilla mumbled little German storybook lines in her sleep and secretly watched nerdy tv shows on her phone when she thought Laura wasn’t looking. 

#

Laura was walking through the dorm room door, adjusting her bag, when she suddenly froze. Her brain stopped. The only thing it could do was scream a warning that something was horribly wrong. Hair rising on her neck. Stomach dropping out. Her eyes scanned the room, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Her fingers were already creeping towards her fur.

They only hit the fabric of her bag.

Her heartrate skyrocketed as she realized exactly how light the bag under her arm felt. She yanked it open, stomach dropping when she found no fur inside. Panicking, Laura dug through every crevice even though she knew they were too small.

She’d lost it. 

She’d lost her fur.

She slammed from the room like a rocket, bag discarded behind her as she sprinted back over her path. A werewolf fur was a rare thing. A prized possession to many and selling for literally millions on the black market. Laura almost retched at the idea that a piece of herself, of her soul, would be taken away from her like that. So she ran in a panicked flurry. 

Do not lose your fur. The first rule a cub learned. 

Hers had never even been touched and now she could only imagine someone picking it up and running their hands through it. Wrapping it over their shoulders. 

Slipping inside her skin and draping themselves in her soul.

There was a rumble of noise ahead and Laura veered towards the small crowd that appeared just over the hill. Her hands curled into fists. This had to be it. She could catch her own faint scent lingering. She must have dropped it and multiple people had found it and were fighting over who got to keep it. Sweat broke out over her neck. All those hands. Touching it. Touching her.

She pushed through the crowd, trying to find the center and desperately wondering what she could possibly trade to get it back. What she might had to do to get it back. They couldn’t control her with it like one could a seelie. But. A werewolf without her coat was cast out. Packless. In deep pain every full moon when they were unable to answer the call.

“That’s mine!” She shouted as she burst through the last layer of the crowd. Voice lost to noise.

Then she nearly tripped as she skidded to a stop at the sight in front of her. 

Her fur was on the ground, tumbled in the pile it must have fallen in and completely untouched. Untouched because standing above it, very carefully straddling the fabric even though her fangs were out and her eyes were silver, was Carmilla. Her arms were crossed, chin raised. Royal. Ancient. Brutal.

One of them crept closer and she whirled, snarling until he retreated. His face pale with fear. 

“Don’t touch it.” Carmilla growled. 

Werewolves were powerful but even they couldn’t match a vampire. Humans didn’t have a chance. 

“Come on!” One boy from the crowd shouted, “Just let us take it and we won’t even tell the hunters you’re here. Give you a few days head start. We’ll even pay you for it first.”

Laura’s heart went to her throat. Carmilla could hardly afford to pass up a deal like that.

“No deal.” Carmilla said, “Leave. This isn’t yours and I’m not going to give it to you.”

“We’ll have you staked by sunset,” they threatened.

Carmilla snarled, fangs flashing, he stepped back. Then she twitched slightly and looked directly at Laura. Her gaze flashed to something sheepish before vanishing back into stoicism. “It’s hers.” She paused, “Laura.”

The first time Carmilla said her name.

Every head turned to her as Laura darted forward, gathering the fur in her arms and burying her face in it regardless of the dust that covered it. She could have cried if the crowd hadn’t been surrounding her. Their murmurs a mix of disappointment and harsh words for Carmilla. There was a soft touch on her back, careful not to contact the fur, “Maybe we should get going, fuzzball.”

She let Carmilla lead her through the crowd, choosing to ignore the snarls that forced the crowd to dissipate around them. 

Until.

Carmilla roared, her hand tightening on Laura’s shoulder almost to the point of breaking skin. Laura’s nose was filled with the scent of blood as Carmilla collapsed into her. Carmilla stumbled back to her feet as Laura lunged, backhanding the attacker so they fell into the dirt. The sharp glint of their knife flashing to the ground.

“Someone call the hunters!” a voice shouted.

Laura couldn’t fight them all. She grabbed Carmilla and hauled her along, “We need to move.”

She didn’t know where to go so her feet took her back to the dorm room. Carmilla was staggering along beside her but fell easily to her bed when Laura shoved her down. She put her fur down on her pillow, “Let me see.” Then leaping forward as she turned back to Carmilla, “Wait! Sit back down. You’re hurt.”

In the five seconds she’d turned away, Carmilla had struggled back to her feet, “No time, fuzzball. Those hunters will be here in minutes and I need to be gone.”

The smell of blood filled the room as Carmilla nearly collapsed under her own weight, Laura grabbed her by the hips. Eyes on the red streak leaking from Carmilla’s left rib and down to her hipbones. Carmilla just kept moving. She grabbed her rucksack and threw it over her shoulder, nearly toppling over. 

“You’re not going to be able to outrun them like this, Carm!” Laura said. 

Fear was rolling off Carmilla like a wave, drowning out everything else except her own scent. Pine and snow and leather leaking into Laura’s skin where she held Carmilla out.

From the first floor of the dorm, they could hear the sound of shouting.

“Well, I’m not going to sit here and let them stake me either.” Carmilla said, her teeth were gritted, fangs still out.

“How about,” Laura didn’t know what to do with her hands, “Nobody gets staked today and we all just survive!” All she could hear was the pounding of footsteps up the stairwell. A loud boom that got closer and closer. 

Carmilla’s laugh turned into a groan, “It’s a nice dream.”

“We’ll figure something out!” Laura insisted, “I’ll talk to them. Make them listen.”

Carmilla was warm against her side, “Won’t work. Help me to the window, I’m gonna jump.”

“We’re three stories up!”

“Best chance I’ve got. I’m not dying because you want to talk. They know I’m here now. They’re not about to stop.” Carmilla pulled away from her, forcing her way towards the window. There was no way she’d make it in time. The footsteps were almost to the door and the voices were easy to hear. Carmilla collapsed against the windowsill but still struggled to open it, blood leaking from her wound in a slow drip that seeped through her shirt and began to soak her jeans.

She couldn’t just let Carmilla die like this. 

There was a crash against the door.

Laura grabbed her fur and pulled it tight over Carmilla’s shoulders. There was just a moment where Carmilla’s eyes went wide, meeting Laura’s as they both just stared at each in disbelief. Then Carmilla twisted, Laura’s brown coat swirling around her until a wolf was slumped across the floor, bleeding sluggishly from it’s side. Smaller. Leaner. 

Laura shivered. She could feel Carmilla, something sinking into her chest like a warm coal as a consciousness brushed up against her own. Memories and thoughts and feelings that weren’t her own swirling inside her head. Balls and carriages and dusty libraries. Laughter and death and hope and hate. A faint pulse under her skin. A throb in her ribs.

Her hands shook as she reached out, pulling Carmilla up, “You’ve got to help me.” she whispered. Hands in her own fur coat. A warm heartbeat under her palms. 

Bleary eyes opened, shining silver. 

Confusion and fear and pain ran through her head but Carmilla managed to make it to the bed. Laura threw a blanket over her wound to cover it then ran to the door. Pasting a confused look on her face, she threw the door open and pretended to be surprised to find three vampire hunters staring back at her.

“Where’s the monster!” they cried. 

She stepped back to show them the room, “Not sure what you’re talking about? Just us wolves here.”

They insisted on checking the room but eventually left when Laura insisted there were no vampires around. They believed her. Equipment picking up no trace.

After all, what werewolf would willing give up her coat? None of them.

And certainly not to a vampire.

#

They hadn’t spoken since. As soon as the hunters had left, Carmilla had slipped off Laura’s fur and slowly passed it back to her. Laura had taken a moment to fold it carefully then had slipped to Carmilla’s side, pressing a bottle of blood into her hand while carefully bandaging up her side. 

Now they just sat in the dark. A girl on each bed and silence between them as Carmilla sipped her blood. Laura had her fur in her lap, fingers tracing out the pattern of dried blood that now matted the fur.

“I’m sorry,” it was Carmilla who broke the silence, “about that.” She nodded to the blood.

Laura just traced the pattern again, “It’ll wash out. I’ll run through a sprinkler. Probably smell like wet dog though.”

The faintest forced smile, “I think I’ll be able to handle it.”

The silence returned. Carmilla’s consciousness had faded, memories gone now that she no longer wore Laura’s fur across her back, but they lingered. They lingered in Laura’s head like shadows of a dream, something in her itching to pull Carmilla close just to figure out how to handle the little piece of Carmilla still swirling inside her soul. Like Laura still had a little piece of her.

She wondered if maybe there was a piece of herself inside Carmilla’s head now.

She itched to move. Neither girl did.

“How’d you know where to find it?” Laura asked, “In the field?”

Carmilla fidgeted, “You’ve got a distinctive smell, fuzzball. When I noticed it wasn’t moving, figured I’d better check if you’d fallen and busted your head open. Can’t have you dying and them replacing you with some other roommate. Might get stuck with a human or something.”

Laura refused to be distracted, just stroking up and down her fur. The movement mesmerizing. Comfortable. “And you didn’t just pick it up when the crowd came? Would have saved you a lot of trouble.”

There was a pause. Then Carmilla’s words came as soft as the moonlight that highlighted her face, “It wasn’t mine to touch.”

“Can’t say that now,” Laura words came in tears and laughter but she didn’t know why. It wasn’t made of sadness or fear or anger. There was just too much. Too many feelings in her head between her own and Carmilla and everything blurring together. 

The fear in Carmilla’s scent had vanished, replaced by emotions that Laura didn’t know what to do with. Each one full and round and warm. She put the bottle down and slowly stood, still unsteady as she pressed a hand to her wounded side. She watched Laura carefully, calmly. Then her eyes flashed silver and Carmilla was gone; a puff of smoke in her place. When it vanished, a large panther stood in her place.  
Silver eyes still fixed on Laura.

Giving her plenty of time to shoo it away, the panther slunk up onto the bed beside and softly laid down beside her. Very carefully not touching her. Those eyes never left her face. Offering a choice. A moment of peace.

Laura slipped her fur around her shoulders and tried not to notice the way the smallest scent of pine was mixed up in the familiar smell. But her bones still popped the same and something in her chest settled as she lay down next to Carmilla, pressed side to side as her nose tickled the edge of Carmilla’s paw.

As her eyes closed, Laura could have sworn she felt Carmilla purring.

**Author's Note:**

> The weekend means I get to sleep again!
> 
> This was story 90. NINTY! Just wow. Thank you so much cupcakes for all of your support and your kudos, comments, [ and tumblr flails ](http://ariabauer.tumblr.com/) along the way. As we move into this final ten, I can't thank you enough. Stay stupendous. Aria.


End file.
